I didn’t sign-up for Foursquare when I first heard about it because I didn’t see the benefit to me as a consumer.

Then, Chipotle had a promotion encouraging customers to sign-up on Foursquare and check-in at every visit.

Since I eat a Chipotle at least five days a week, at home and while traveling, I signed up and started checking in.

As a marketer, I know there’s tremendous value in knowing who your best customers are and ensuring they receive a consistently outstanding customer experience. These are likely to be your “raving fans” as well as your best social media promoters.

However, I don’t see any retailers using Foursquare to develop, or even a have a relationship with, their best customers.

I read an interesting article in the January-February edition of Communications World entitled “Contact Snacking — and What You Can Do About It.”

I wasn’t familiar with the terms “content snacking” or “Tl;dr” until I read this article; however, with increasingly shorter attention spans and a desire for more focused content, it makes a lot of sense.

In case you aren’t familiar, Tl;dr stands for “too long, don’t read” and is most frequently used in online forums, social networks, or when someone sends a URL to a group with the warning that it’s going to be wordy.

If your target audience is looking for quick bits of information, you have to decide whether you want to cater to their needs by providing snack-sized content, whether it’s text, audio or video.

It also means you need to think more strategically about content and determining the critical information you want to share. You want to tell a story that stands on its own but also links to content that adds depth and new dimensions to the material.

Other things to consider:
– Ensure web content stays “above the fold”
– Keep press releases and case studies to two pages
– Keep blogs to 250 to 350 words
– Keep subject lines to 50 characters or less
– Focus your writing and avoid extraneous words — especially on email as more and more email is being read on smart phones

Adapt your message to the media and to your target audience. Get read, create interest so your prospect will reach out and start a dialogue with you.

I am always amazed when he tells me about the number of “price-only” shopper queries they receive.

Anyone chartering a bus for a school group, church group, business outing or a group of friends, ought to be a little more concerned about safety.

I would provide a list of questions to ask when chartering a tour bus, but I know EDLP (every day low price) providers will not give you an honest answer to your questions.

They are typically in the business on a whim and running their business on a shoestring cutting corners everywhere they can to stave off inevitable bankruptcy that’s the result of pricing that fails to cover their cost, let alone provide a reasonable profit.

Nonetheless the following are several items you need to consider:

Will the driver hold a current Commercial Driver’s License with a “passenger” endorsement ?

Will the driver hold a valid medical certificate ?

Does the company have a driver drug/alcohol testing program that complies with DOT regulations ?

What is the maintenance schedule for the buses?

What is the company’s safety record?

How does the company ensure the safety and security of passengers?

Charter buses are a great, and environmentally friendly, way to travel with a group for business or pleasure; however, safety should come before price more so than in any other purchase you make.

In its prime, Wachovia Bank was in a neck and neck battle with Nations Bank, now Bank of America, and First Union for market share in North Carolina.

Wachovia was seen as the “old money” bank for wealthy North Carolinians, Nations Bank was the aggressive bank for up and comers while First Union was the bank for the tobacco farmers, textile and furniture manufacturers and their employees.

Since Wachovia did not have the media or production budgets of Nations Bank or First Union we looked for other ways to differentiate the bank and make our bank more attractive to new comers and people who were considering switching.

We developed a series of five “head” commercials that gave very logical reasons to bank at Wachovia — typically rate or fee driven. And, we developed five “heart” commercials that provided more emotional reasons to bank at Wachovia — the “sundown rule” and dog biscuits at drive-throughs.

We ran these commercials for more than a year. At the end of the year, we were able to prove that the “heart” commercials drove greater awareness and switching preference than did the “head” commercials.

Making an emotional connection with the customer pays — even for banks.

Whether you’re branding yourself or your company, the following are five questions we all need to know the answers to whether we’re an owner, an employee or a prospective employee.

You can ask the following questions in your strategic planning session, in a company meeting or in an interview:

Who are we? The answer to this question should be consistent with your vision, mission and values, as well as be sufficiently differentiating.

Why are we here? The answer to the question should be consistent with your vision — the desired end-state the company would like to achieve in the future.

Who do we want to be? This too is consistent with your vision and needs to be realistic, achievable and consistent with your values.

Who are our customers? Everyone should have a good idea of the demographics, psychographics and firmographics of their customers and their prospective or desired customers.

What are they hiring us to do? Have a conversation with your customers to ensure you “know” the answer to this question. Their answers may surprise you. You’ll also learn what makes you “different and better” than your competition.

What other questions do you ask?

Do all of the members of your team provide the same answers to these questions?

Bill Carson, Judy Carson and Kit Carson-Truby bought the last apple orchard on the Blue Ridge Parkway saving it from developers.

The Orchard at Altapass is a non-profit foundation that needs to build an endowment to secure the future of the orchard after its founders are gone.

The Orchard at Altapass is:

Preserving the history, heritage and culture of the Blue Ridge Mountains

Protecting the underlying orchard land with its apples, wetlands, butterflies, bees and other natural features

Educating the public about the Appalachian experience and the history of this important area of the Blue Ridge Parkway

Showcasing local musicians with more than 150 live performances when the orchard is open

Promoting education and exercise with dancing to the music provided by the local musicians

Promoting the foods and crafts of local artisans

If you are traveling the Blue Ridge Parkway or are interested in the protection of some of our vanishing natural and historic resources I encourage you to visit the Orchard at Altapass in person or online.

If you’ve ever been to the Orchard at Altapass, please share what it means to you and help to spread the word about this jewel on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

After having written a couple of blog posts on Scott Stratten’s book The Business Book of (Un)Awesome I thought I’d share how my optometrist missed a couple of chances to be awesome and consequently became unawesome.

I’ve been going to Eye Care Associates for about 10 years. This summer I was due for a new set of glasses. I’m old-school and prefer round frames to the more stylish rectangular frames. All Eye Care Associates had in stock were rectangular frames.

I talked to Shaun Cotterman, the chief procurement officer, about my situation and he suggested I find what I wanted on the Internet and send them to him via e-mail.

I sent him what I wanted from FramesDirect.com. He told me he could not get those particular frames but suggested I order them and bring them in and they’d put lenses in them.

I did so and everything worked out fine. However, Shaun, and Eye Care Associates, missed an opportunity to be awesome, and add value to our relationship, by not taking care of this for me.

Shortly after getting new glasses, I applied for the director of marketing position at Eye Care Associates to Melissa Short, director of H.R. I asked my optometrist to put in a good word for me. Nothing.

After several months, I inquired about the position and learned it had been filled. I expressed my concern that Eye Care Associates didn’t have the courtesy to respond to a customer and they explained they received more than 400 applications for the job.

How many of these applications were from customers? How many from potential customers? Do you think it might have been worthwhile to thank the applicants and let them know the position had been filled?

Everyone is looking for a “silver bullet” to improve customer satisfaction and enhance the user experience. There is no “silver bullet.” There are a lot of little opportunities to be awesome, but you have to be on the lookout for them and then execute on them.

Where are you, and your employees, missing the opportunity to be awesome?

I enjoyed reading The Book of Business Unawesome by Scott Stratten, author of Unmarketing. This is the other half of The Book of Business Awesome.

Following are my 12 key takeaways from Scott’s latest book:

If your actions contradict your values, your values are worthless and your customers and prospects will likely see the contradiction before you will.

What we do affects our brand perception more than any brochure or website ever could.

Make your website mobile friendly. Smartphones now make up more than 50% of all cell phones in the U.S. — 85% among millennials.

Your mission statement is your actions. Each person who come in contact with your brand can have a different experience.

Your vision, mission and values are not what’s on a sheet of paper — it’s what you do.

Customers don’t see your silos. They see your brand as a whole. Every time they don’t get a response or are told they are waiting in the wrong line, it hurts your brand.

Be sure someone is responsible for letting customers know your brand is listening, cares about their feedback, is taking care of whatever issues that may have arisen or has passed it along to the right person who can resolve it.

Anyone running a social media account for a brand should have access to answers and resources within the company, or at least a game plan, when common issues arise.

User experience is critical. Users are becoming more savvy and will tolerate less crap.

Data without insights is ignorance. Have a dialogue with customers to get real insights from data.

We cannot make business decisions based on numbers alone. People are not numbers and they cannot be expected to act the same way numbers do.

Newsletters are a great way to stay in front of your market and position yourself as an expert, but only when done with respect. Share great content and set the expectation of how often you will be in touch before the person signs up so they know what to expect.

Do you empower your employees to be awesome?

Do you and your employees know the difference between being awesome and unawesome?

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Originally posted on Customer Experience Matters:We created this infographic called “The Untapped Value of Employee Engagement” with some of our employee engagement research. If you like the infographic, then here are some other download formats that are made for prinintg: Click…

Five days ago I wrote a blog post lamenting the fact that SoLoMo (social, local, mobile) marketing was taking too long for retailers to adopt and questioning if that would be the death of Foursquare. I was pleasantly surprised when … Continue reading →

I didn’t sign-up for Foursquare when I first heard about it because I didn’t see the benefit to me as a consumer. Then, Chipotle had a promotion encouraging customers to sign-up on Foursquare and check-in at every visit. Since I … Continue reading →

I read an interesting article in the January-February edition of Communications World entitled “Contact Snacking — and What You Can Do About It.” I wasn’t familiar with the terms “content snacking” or “Tl;dr” until I read this article; however, with … Continue reading →

My best friend owns a charter bus company, Holiday Tours, that covers central North Carolina. I am always amazed when he tells me about the number of “price-only” shopper queries they receive. Anyone chartering a bus for a school group, … Continue reading →

In its prime, Wachovia Bank was in a neck and neck battle with Nations Bank, now Bank of America, and First Union for market share in North Carolina. Wachovia was seen as the “old money” bank for wealthy North Carolinians, … Continue reading →

Whether you’re branding yourself or your company, the following are five questions we all need to know the answers to whether we’re an owner, an employee or a prospective employee. You can ask the following questions in your strategic planning … Continue reading →

I had the opportunity to meet with the founders of The Orchard at Altapass in Little Switzerland, NC yesterday. Bill Carson, Judy Carson and Kit Carson-Truby bought the last apple orchard on the Blue Ridge Parkway saving it from developers. … Continue reading →

After having written a couple of blog posts on Scott Stratten’s book The Business Book of (Un)Awesome I thought I’d share how my optometrist missed a couple of chances to be awesome and consequently became unawesome. I’ve been going to … Continue reading →

I enjoyed reading The Book of Business Unawesome by Scott Stratten, author of Unmarketing. This is the other half of The Book of Business Awesome. Following are my 12 key takeaways from Scott’s latest book: If your actions contradict your values, your values … Continue reading →